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Evolution 2009

What an amazing eSports event Evolution 2009 was! The biggest fighting game tournament in North America took place this past weekend (July 17-19, 2009) at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. EVO 2009 definitely lived up to its billing from start to finish the venue was packed with spectators and energy that kept growing as the event continued to its main event, the Street Fighter IV finals.

I was able to photograph EVO 2009 thanks to the help from the organization who asked me to be their official photographer. They were nice enough to provide a hotel room for me at the Gold Coast, right across from the Rio. Not exactly the most magnificent room, but given the amount of time I spent inside it really did not matter. Most of the time I was at the venue, when I was at my room it was just to pass out and sleep to rest up for the next day.

A typical day for EVO consisted of waking up around 6AM, showering, getting dressed and meeting with the staff at 7AM for breakfast. Breakfast was a time to discuss about the event and what needed to be done that day, it was also important for me to attend so I would know which events to focus on and to know an overview of how the day would be run. By 8AM, we would be at the convention hall to setup for the day. For me it would mean charging my backup batteries, uploading any remaining photos from the last day on my laptop and checking out the lighting conditions. Then from 9AM till the end of the day, it was taking photos or uploading photos with breaks to get lunch and dinner to keep documenting the event without passing out.

The event itself was a smashing success. Never had I been to an event that ran as smoothly as EVO 2009 or the energy of the crowd all of Championship Sunday. The hype was so tangible during the Street Fighter IV finals between Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong, at time I caught myself staring at the match and missing some photo opportunities. The tension of the match at times was so thick it could of been cut through with a knife, especially when Justin had to win rounds to extend the match. In the end Daigo pulled off the close victory to be named the first Street Fighter IV champion of 2009.

All in all, I loved my time at EVO 2009 and am already looking forward to shooting EVO 2010. Perhaps I will be able to shoot another big fighting game event before the close of 2009? One can only hope so!

Evolution 2009 photos can be found here.

eSports Photo of the Year

I woke up Tuesday morning to a barrage of Twitter mentions notifying that one of my photos had been nominated for the 2009 eSports Photo of the Year.  Personally I was hoping that I would be nominated as one of the finalists, but not exactly as confident as others had been telling me I should of been. What surprised me was that the academy chose my photo of Ed Ma after dropping a crucial set at the Super Battle Opera Qualifiers finals, rather than the photo with the reaction to Mike Ross’s improbable win over Haunts also at the SBO Qualifiers – better known by the Street Fighter 4 community as the “Believe” photo.

Whereas “Believe” showed the atmosphere with the excitement and jubilation of the crowd, the Ed Ma picture captures a more intimate photo of him after 15 hours at Denjin Arcade, coming so close to winning the USA spot to Tokyo only to see it slip away. To be honest, it was a secret favorite of mine out of the entire set from the qualifiers. Though both photos capture the raw emotion that eSports can bring out of competitors and spectators, Ed Ma’s solitary figure slammed into the arcade screen with despair reminds me of just how lonely it can be for the losers of any competition. With nary an eye passing to glance at him, the crowd is too busy reacting to the elation of the victors.

Being nominated for the eSports Photo of the Year means a lot to me, especially given the fact that I only started doing eSports specific photography since May 31st, just about a month and a half. Perhaps what humbles me most with the nomination is that both photos were just taken at my 2nd eSports event, only a week’s experience into the genre. For the fighting game community to embrace my photos in such a short period of time, my hope is that my nominated photo can bring the due exposure the scene truly deserves. Furthermore, being the sole photographer nominated from North America shows the deteriorating state of eSports in our region. My hope is in future iteration of the awards, not only is the more of the fighting game community represented but that of American eSports is as well.

Click for all the photos nominated for the 2009 eSports Photo of the Year.

Paradise Hills Showdown

Yesterday I went down with the Get Your Tournament crew to San Diego to cover a pre-EVO tournament. Since media coverage was denied for a tournament at Fullerton, we decided we needed to cover at least one last tournament before EVO. San Diego is not exactly a local tournament, we had to drive for a good two hours before we reached the venue, which turned out to be someone’s house.

All in all, the tournament went off great. Atmosphere was great, people enjoyed the matches and felt better prepared afterwards. I took a number of photos of the tournament and I would honestly say that last night’s event was probably the best looking photos I have taken thus far. I’m still learning to shoot better shots at eSports events and adapting to any situation handed to me. EVO is around the corner and that’s going to be a big display stage for my photos around the world.

Photos from last night: